John Stinchcombe

John Stinchcombe

@johnstinchcombe.bsky.social

Ecological and evolutionary genetics in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at UofT. Dad, dog lover, unashamed coffee addict.

1.9K followers710 following203 posts

I don't need AI to read PDFs for me- I like reading papers. I apparently do need an AI bot to make the Uni admin Outlook calendar system, my phone and tablet's google calendar, and the built in calendar for my email client (Thunderbird) actually talk to each other. Why is this so stupidly hard?

John Stinchcombe reposted

John Stinchcombe reposted

Monash University is offering a fully-funded PhD scholarship to an outstanding student in animal behaviour/evolutionary ecology. Choose from eight project areas. For information about what project I'm offering, please DM me or see application form: forms.gle/ia9t4KPD3FKT.... Deadline: 15 Nov.

John Stinchcombe reposted

With fieldwork, I didn't get to advertise our (not so now) new paper on the quantitative genetics of growth in the 🦎 in @journal-evo.bsky.social: dx.doi.org/10.1093/evol... It's an exciting paper paper in which we disentangle what it means to treat the whole growth curve as a function-valued trait!

dx.doi.orgQuantitative genetics of lifetime growth curves in a lizardAbstract. Body size is an iconic trait in quantitative genetics. For species with indeterminate growth however, growth curve, a function-valued trait, is t

John Stinchcombe reposted

Application deadline for this is approaching fast. Email me if you are interested in doing a 2-year postdoc in a project to study the reproductive system and population genomics of an European buzz pollinated plant. To be clear: this is to participate as a named postdoc in a grant application.

Mario Vallejo-Marin@nicrodemo.bsky.social

I am looking for potential candidates interested in applying for an external postdoctoral fellowship in my lab at Uppsala University. If you want to work on buzz pollination please get in touch. Reach me by email. More about our current work here: plant-evolution.org/wp/

John Stinchcombe reposted

Sincere question, @trevorabranch.bsky.social : how do these spawning stock biomass estimates compare to estimates from the 1960s, or even earlier? This recovery is great, and clearly better than not recovering... but is this also a case of shifting baselines?

Trevor A. Branch@trevorabranch.bsky.social

This is seismic news for fisheries scientists. Northern cod is *the* iconic symbol of total fisheries collapse due to overfishing (and other factors) *and* the iconic symbol of a complete failure to recover for decades afterwards. This is like announcing the complete recovery of bison on land.

John Stinchcombe reposted

Our pre-print analysing the 1 std decline in mass in Wytham great tits has just been published in @animalecology.bsky.social check it out: besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... @biology.ox.ac.uk

besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.comEarly‐life environment drives long‐term decrease in adult body mass in a wild bird populationUsing more than 90,000 body mass measures of adult and nestling great tits Parus major, we show that the 1 SD decline in adult mass between 1978 and 2024 is a consequence of changes in the environmen....
David López-Idiáquez@davididiaquez.bsky.social

We have published a new pre-print showing a decline in great tit adult and nestling mass of around 1 gram in 47 y. [rate of approx. -0.040 Hadanes] With @ellafcole.bsky.social, @devisatarkar.bsky.social, Sam. Crofts, @mcmahok.bsky.social & @sheldonbirds.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

This is a "least bad" outcome of a self-inflicted problem from Duke University. Is it better than the collection being atomized and shipped all over the place? Yes. Is it a travesty that one of the world's wealthiest private Universities divested from their herbarium? Definitely yes.

This is an institution with a > $12B endowment, that spends $180M annually on athletics. The top 54 salaried administrators, coaches, executives make ~ $33M annually. Dismantling a research archive and selling it as "at least we didn't destroy it" is the very much moving the goalposts.

John Stinchcombe reposted

We will be hosting DC Area research talks on Evolutionary Genetics at GW starting this Fall. First Tuesday of the Month at 3pm, Science and Engineering Hall. Co-founded with Manus Patten at Georgetown University. Please help spread the word.

John Stinchcombe reposted

Avocados come in 2 varieties - A-types start each day female and switch to male midday. B-types do the reverse. In work just published from the last chapter of my PhD, we show this system evolved 40+million yrs ago and is regulated by alleles of 1 transcription factor www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

pnas.orgBalanced polymorphism in a floral transcription factor underlies the ancient rhythm of daily sex alternation in avocado | PNASIn avocado and certain wild relatives in Lauraceae, a highly synchronized daily rhythm of floral sex timing promotes cross-pollination between two ...

John Stinchcombe reposted

Got a well intentioned email that ended with “I work at odd hours. My working hours are not necessarily your working hours. Please respond when you feel you comfortably can.” Obviously that’s code for they don’t expect a response from me. Ever.

John Stinchcombe reposted

John Stinchcombe reposted

John Stinchcombe reposted

This fall I'm thrilled to be joining UMass Amherst (@umassamherst.bsky.social) as an assistant prof. My lab will study photosynthetic evolution, diversity & resilience, focusing on C4 photosynthesis, one of the most remarkably convergent traits in the biosphere. #PlantScience #Evolution #NewPI

John Stinchcombe reposted

#Evol2026 I’m launching a new research group at UNC Charlotte in January 2027. Prospective students, postdocs, and collaborators are welcome to get in touch: jacob.berv@charlotte.edu More at jakeberv.com, lab website coming soon.

The amazing Amanda Peake is presenting this work at #Evol2026. Go check it out, where she boils down several years of work into 15 minutes! Ecological Genetics II, 4:30 - 4:45, Room 24, Monday 6/22/2026.

John Stinchcombe@johnstinchcombe.bsky.social

Why are leaves the shape that they are? What controls intraspecific, genetic variation in leaf shape? New from my lab, in collaboration with many others, led by PhD student Amanda Peake: mapping the leaf shape polymorphism in Ipomoea hederacea.